The older I get, the younger I feel. Growing up, I was always the kid, but I spoke like an adult and was in adult roles. I didn’t feel like a kid. The older I get, I actually feel younger! Which is good. I always thought when you get older, you’ll want to slow down, but I want to do even more.
I don’t use my writing career as a vehicle to get me acting work or to write roles for myself.
By the time I finished doing regular practice, most of my work was in international regulatory law, so I was advising foreign governments about their responsibility and roles in things like public inquiries.
I used to visit one production house every day, and I used to take up auditions even for small roles. Before my debut, I must have auditioned at almost every single production house.
Get yourself into every audition that you can. Even in those for smaller roles, you’ll never know when someone may recommend you for a bigger one.
I enjoy roles that involve a task outside of my natural capabilities – for example, playing a number of musical instruments or sword fighting or cutting a suit. You have to look as though you can do it, without too much editing.
I like doing films and I wish that I could do more but I still have to audition. I don’t get offered starring roles in movies even though I’ve written and starred in a movie.
I think a leader has many roles to play. So, you know, one role is that of incubating talent; the other is that of being a strategist. It’s a very interesting job I’ve got.
My husband calls it winging it – the way I just took what the studios gave me, didn’t do my homework and avoided roles that would risk my image.
Bond? It is a bit like saying, ‘Do you want to play Superman?’ Anyone would dream of it. It’s one of the most coveted roles in film. I’d be honoured. But I don’t know if it will actually happen. I’m just happy with the idea of being associated with it. It’s nice there’s a lot of good will.
I wanted to be on the stage, doing very important emotional roles.
I’d rather a young black actor read about success as opposed to how tough it was. I get these roles because I can act and that’s it. Hopefully that’s it.
I am happy with all the films I’ve done. I have not become the victim of an image. I have managed to do different roles, and I am proud of that.
I like playing the contrasting roles. It what inspires me to act. If I look back on my career I am happy that I have gotten to play a wide variety of different roles, from Mike Dexter, to Van Ray in Fast Lane, to Dr. Cullen to Coop.
You know, right now, they say – I don’t know who says this, but somebody told me – there’s three male roles to every female role. And I guess I’d work on evening that up. Making great roles for women. It’s just such a huge challenge.
I don’t think of it at the moment, but the roles that interest me are those of young people.
There are not many roles where women are really active.
I’ve always admired Cate Blanchett and the roles she chooses. I think she’s got an incredible discipline in a way, with choosing roles that are going to help her grow and bring something interesting to the world.
I could be a star and maybe make lots of money, or I could change roles all the time and have a more interesting – and longer – career.
One of the pleasures of being an actor is quite simply taking a walk in someone else’s shoes. And when I look at the roles I’ve played, I’m kind of amazed at all the wonderful adventures I’ve had and the different things I’ve learned.
I never get the tall, blonde, glamorous roles because I’m not tall, blonde and glamorous. I’m more the wee, disturbing characters because of the way I look or sound.
I’ve had disappointments and heartbreaks and setbacks and roles I didn’t get, but something always came along that either made me better or was an even better role.
So now I feel I’m lucky in the respect that I can sort of pick a little more carefully, which is tricky because as a black actress, there aren’t that many roles to pick from.
When you’re a woman in your 40s, it’s not the best time to do films, because there really aren’t that many roles. Then you reach 50 and there are more roles again. Mother parts.
When you’re brown and Indian, you get offered a lot of doctor roles.
I get to do interesting roles and make a living.
I guess you should approach the roles differently when they’re actual people who have been, this is the difference. Getting the accent exact, or the hair exact is less important in a situation like this.
I don’t plan my roles or my films.
When I signed ‘Kaaka Muttai,’ a lot of directors told me that I shouldn’t be doing the role of a mother so early in my career. But I went ahead, as I aspire to do challenging roles.
I so rarely turned down a role, that I can’t say I have any regrets in that regard. There were many roles that I would rather not have done, but having a home and family requires that we sometimes do things we would rather not.
Actors do tend to get pigeonholed. People want to know who you are so they can put you in a box. It’s lovely to be known for such diametrically opposite roles.
I enjoy doing all kinds of roles, but I don’t want to be restricted to comedy alone.
It’s been difficult to find roles that are independent, strong, and self-assured; I always say I can’t play the princess. I’m not a pretty princess! I’m a tomboy.
I have tried to look different and play different roles through my life because I am passionate about my work.
I’ve stayed away from sexy roles. It’s never interested me.
There just aren’t that many Jesus roles around.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the best actor because his choice of roles are so diametrically opposite from each other, and he pulls it off almost every time so convincingly.
I don’t really give much thought to the roles that I’d ideally love to play.
I think when average-size people start taking roles that were meant for dwarfs, that’s a little frustrating because there aren’t that many roles out there for height-challenged actors.
I’ve turned down a lot of roles to make time to record and tour.
There was a solid year and a half, perhaps two years, after making ‘Temple Grandin,’ when I didn’t do anything. I just didn’t have much patience for roles that were silly, or light, or inconsequential.
I think real life reflects your movies. In your life, you pick stuff that influences what movie roles you wanna pick. I think if you’ve got an interesting life, you wanna do interesting movies about interesting things.
The whole point about becoming an actor is variety and changing roles.
I’m very proud of my roles. I enjoy the ability to touch millions of people and, in some way, connect with them in ways that I cannot connect with them in my normal, everyday life.
One of the things that I found very confronting in my early working life was that people thought I was some sensitive doe-eyed lovelorn boy, because they’d seen me do that a couple of times. What tends to happen is you get a run of similar roles.
Over the centuries, religion has become institutionalized, and in the process encrusted with elaborate hierarchies, top-heavy bureaucracies, highly specialized roles and reflexive routines.
If you look at men’s roles for the last thousand years, the desire is fundamental. We want to take care of, provide for, and be of service to… women.
After many of years of getting cast in sweet, angelic roles, I’m finally getting to play closer to my real life as a horrible person.
We are all multidimensional and kind of have dual personalities. Everyone puts on different roles depending on what circumstances they’re in without even noticing that they do that.
I was inspired by Cary Grant. I wanted to do the kind of work he did and to work in light-hearted roles, in comedies.
I used to get 2000 as pocket money, and I was being offered a car and an opportunity to make lakhs, so I said a yes. I was a kid and got homesick over my 40-day schedule in Bangalore and decided that I would only do films in the South if they were 10-day roles.
I’m used to working really hard to get a role. I was always auditioning and talking my way into roles.
Some days I want to look like a hipster kid, and then other days I want to be prim and proper. I really wish I had, like, seven lives so I could go from being a hipster one day to a punk the next. But that’s the great thing about fashion. In a way, it’s like acting, because you can try on all these different roles.
I have got one of those faces that change every day: you can dress me up, make me look vampy and then make me look 12 years old. But don’t all women do this thing? We all take on these roles.
I’m playing one of the principal roles, which gives you more clout and more confidence.
Actually, my favourite roles have been in theatre, but on TV, my faves were Slap Maxwell and Larry Sanders.
I don’t want to do panel games or adverts. I really like challenges. I always get roles as an art teacher or a photographer. In the future I want to play something like a mugger/assassin/pastry chef.
When dogs fulfill their roles they are ecstatically happy.
Good roles are hard to find no matter what age.
My parents are desperate, they keep saying: ‘Please stop doing these angsty roles; make it easier for us.’ So, yeah, I’d love to do some comedy.
